Among my favorite podcasts in MacBreak Weekly. It is usually the first podcast I’ll pick out of a list of fresh podcast episodes. I have to agree with Merlin Mann that the latest episode is my favorite episode ever. The soon-to-expire MacHeist Bundle was discussed at length, with depth. There is plenty of commentary on Merlin’s post, but I’d like to approach that topic from my perspective as a buyer.
The first and obvious point is that it’s an amazing deal. With an average price of about $35, any combination of two or three of those apps is worth it. Some are worth it by themselves. Personally I bought it because I had a need for CSSEdit and AppZapper, with further interest in Pixelmator, Snapz Pro X and Cha-Ching. One of my hobbies has always been trying new apps, so it was a welcome opportunity to try out the other apps as well. Since I don’t have much of a budget for shareware, most of the apps I try are on a trial basis only.
The biggest question for buyers is whether they will pay for upgrades, recommend to friends or otherwise generate revenue for the companies involved. I think it’s too early for me to give a firm answer on this one. My quick answer is that I don’t see myself handing over any money that I wouldn’t have otherwise.
In the last year and a bit, with MacHeist and other giveaways, there are more apps on my Mac than I could humanly use (over $1000 worth, I’m sure.) The upshot of this is that I have a great appreciation for the general quality of Mac apps. 95% of the apps are worth using, given a need. I can’t say that I need most of them, but if I did I would be happy with them. I couldn’t say that for Windows software. Most of the shareware that I’ve used is at best passable.
The downside of having so many apps is that I DO have to fight internally to put value on them. In the end, the apps are not devalued. I treat the free apps more like special trial versions than full versions of the app. If I use the program enough and the new version offers features I want, I do think I will upgrade. If any of the apps are devalued in my mind, it’s only the free ones that came free by doing the heists. However, one big factor in my personal valuation is that I am a developer, and I’ve been observing the indie Mac dev community. I know how much work gets put into each piece of software and that there are dreams behind every one of them. Unfortunately, the ratio of developers to normal users that bought MacHeist bundle is not 1:1.
Also in this episode of MacBreak Weekly, Merlin Mann brings up his vision for .Mac, which is syncing your home directory between different devices. Andy Ihnatko brought up a good point about the special Intel chip in the MacBook Air. He puts forward that the specially designed Intel chip indicates that the MBA is just the first of many smaller Apple products.
(The MacHeist discussion in the podcast starts at 0:10:15 until 0:17:35. It then picks up again at 0:38:19 and finishes off at 0:57:56. The .Mac and Intel chip discussion happens between the two bouts of MacHeist chatter.)
